Using the bug-testing software, Hallmark UK has gained visibility across its entire .NET and SQL-based development IT estate to predict failures before they happen. This covers back-end applications, data warehousing, inventory as well as desktop and web applications.

Slow business transactions were affecting Hallmark UK’s auditing, inventory and web services which ultimately had an effect on the firm’s productivity.

Chris Tranter, technical lead at Hallmark UK, said: “We are able to pinpoint application issues right down to the code level before these cause a problem and impact project timescales. This helps us to reduce the number of escalations, improving user experience and allowing us to focus on driving innovation.”

The project went live over the Easter bank holiday weekend, to support a wider business transformation.

Hallmark UK is embracing a digital strategy to compete with online card retailers like moonpig.com and funkypigeon.com which operate an entirely online card sales and postage service.

It has teamed up with Amazon to bring customers “an entirely new way of shopping for cards”. Now customers buy cards on the Hallmark website, through an Amazon shopping cart.

The cardmaker is currently using AppDynamics Application Intelligence Platform and will integrate the vendor’s SQL monitoring tool into its cloud controller.

In addition, it will extend the tool to monitor its server infrastructure.

Carmaker Nissan-Renault also uses AppDynamics to optimise user-experience for its 300 global websites. Similarly, betting firm Paddy Power deployed software from the vendor to improve its DevOps approach to app development.